The National Portrait Gallery in London showcased its first exhibition, ‘Yevonde: Life and Colour’ when its doors reopened post a three-year hiatus in June 2023. The exhibition articulated the long spanning career of a ground-breaking female figure in Photography, Yevonde Middleton, under the patronage of The CHANEL Culture Fund.
Globally recognized fashion brand Miu Miu too draws inspiration from the incomparable Yevonde Middleton for their 2024 Leathergoods Campaign. Esteemed photographer Steven Meisel brilliantly illuminates the Miu Miu signature matelassé, offering tribute to color, to femininity, to fashion, and to feminism.
Personifying the contemporary Miu Miu lady, the campaign stars the vibrant Gigi Hadid, the images focusing particularly on the Wander and Arcadie bags, and is astutely styled by Lotta Volkova. The hair and makeup were commendably handled by Guido Palau and Pat McGrath respectively.
The campaign glorifies Yevonde’s classic juxtaposition of shimmering tones, demonstrated through the jolly, spontaneous, and joyful contrasts. This concept is cemented through the new colorways of the Arcadie and Wander, where classic Caramel and Cognac hues are creatively infused with a dazzling orange, and radiant soleil.
Steven Meisel’s enigmatic images, encapsulating fallen petals, nuanced hand gestures, and the warm embrace of Miu Miu’s bags replicate Yevonde’s lively yet gentle portraits. Gigi Hadid, the quintessential fashionista mixed with notable cultural influence, represents this artistic narrative with much gusto.
Miu Miu attributes Yevonde’s distinguished aesthetic to Meisel’s portrayal of Hadid with “strong, vibrant colors set against delicate, porcelain-like gradients. This is, however, blended with the youthful vitality of present times.”
As a representative of freedom and independence, Yevonde carved a niche for herself by opening her own studio at the tender age of 21. This era was dominated by male professionals, making her endeavors even more admirable. Yevonde distinguished her work by merely using her first name, thereby establishing her identity and individual thought process as a woman.
The soul of Yevonde’s work in the 1930s was its ground-breaking use of subtly nuanced, dynamic coloring, which methodically crafted surreal frameworks of models and the societal elite who were surrounded by unearthly props, drapery, and foliage.
The introduction of Vivex, a technically difficult means of coloring photos, around 1930 marks the advent of Yevonde’s work in British society. Despite the resolute opposition against her progressive techniques, Yevonde tenaciously pursued her visions, producing art that many had earlier regarded as undesirable or impractical.
Yevonde’s extraordinary body of work and her accomplishments are worth noting. She was the first woman to ever lecture at the Professional Photographer’s Association in 1921. Additionally, she was the first person in Britain to exhibit color portraits. Spanning her 60-year career, she photographed approximately 10,000 subjects and ran a thriving commercial photography business till one year before her passing at 83. Her love for ancient goddesses’ narratives inspired her signature project – the Goddesses Series of 1935.
